The course will emphasize active learning from each student in the class by the use of the materials on the course website and individual or small group discussions with the instructor. By the end of this course, students are expected to be able to use multiple Japanese structures with a substantial vocabulary and to have attained post-elementary speaking, listening, reading, and writing proficiency levels. As for literacy, a few hundred new characters (Kanji) will be added by reading and writing longer passages.

The course will emphasize active learning by each student in the class by means of the materials in the course website and individualized or small group discussions with the instructor. Small groups based on the students’ proficiency levels will be formed, so that instruction accords with the needs of each group.

This course is designed for students who have already begun studying Japanese in high school, other schools, or at home before coming to Amherst, but have not finished learning basic Japanese structures or acquired a substantial number of characters (Kanji). This course is also for individuals whose proficiency levels of the four skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) are uneven to a noticeable degree. Small groups based on the students’ proficiency levels will be formed, so that instruction accords with the needs of each group.

This course is designed for students who have never previously studied Japanese. The course will introduce the overall structure of Japanese, basic vocabulary, the two syllabaries of the phonetic system, and some characters (Kanji). The course will also introduce the notion of “cultural appropriateness for expressions,” and will provide practice and evaluations for all four necessary skills—speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Students will be required to practice with the materials that are on the course website at the college. 

This course is intended to provide history thesis writers with a grounding in the methodologies and skills for advanced historical research. A primary aim is to provide an intellectual community and structure for students undertaking an honors thesis or independent research project. Students will complete and discuss guided readings, refine their research questions, develop literature reviews related to their topics, identify and analyze primary sources for their projects, and draft and revise at least one chapter of their theses or equivalent projects.

Independent reading course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Research seminars require independent research, including the framing of a research question, and the identification and analysis of relevant primary and secondary sources. History majors must write a 20-25 page, evidence-based paper.

(Offered as HIST 477 and ASLC 477) The fifteen years of war conducted by Japan—variously referred to as the Pacific War, the Great East Asian War, the Fifteen-year War, World War II, and the Asian-Pacific War—continue to shape the politics and diplomacy of Asia. This seminar examines how the experience of war during the 1930s and 40s are captured in the memory and history of Japan, East Asia, and the United States. The principal questions guiding our discussions will be: What is the relationship between history and memory in our media-saturated world?

The Cold War structured the experiences of people worldwide in the second half of the twentieth century. It shaped the ways in which states viewed their citizens, and citizens viewed their states. This research seminar explores the Cold War from US and Soviet perspectives as well as considers the experiences and influences of nations and people beyond the two superpowers, to understand how the global conflict shaped politics, culture, and economy. Focusing on the years between 1945 and 1990, we will explore the relationship between international affairs and domestic society.

In this course students learn about the Palestine/Israel conflict by participating in two immersive simulation modules in which they read key texts and represent the positions of various parties to the conflict. In Part 1, The Struggle for Palestine, 1936 simulation, students present arguments to the British "Peel Commission" regarding the Arabs’ and Jews’ respective needs and demands as they saw them at the time and learn about the origins of the conflict, and the various contacts between the parties and attempts at mediation from the early 1900s till the late 1940s.

Independent reading course. A half course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: n/a